Pricey new hepatitis C drugs, such as Gilead Sciences Inc.'s Sovaldi, may make financial sense to give to give to prisoners, one of the main groups infected with the liver-damaging virus, according to a team of Stanford University researchers.

Sovaldi's $1,000-a-pill price — or $84,000 for a 12-week course of treatments — has been criticized by pharmacy benefits manager Express Scripts (NASDAQ: ESRX) and others for potentially breaking private and public insurance programs. At the same time, leaders of Foster City-based Gilead (NASDAQ: GI...